Following completion of a successful BFS over the project, the Company is in the process of finalising various permitting issues relating to the mine and securing finance to take the project forward. At an operational level, the following timeline will be followed:
![Evander gold mine [photo]](/images/taunggold/evander-gold-mine-future2.jpg)
- Long lead-time equipment will be ordered immediately after the holding company's board approval is granted and funding has been raised
- On completion of the dewatering of the shafts, re-commissioning of the shafts and surface infrastructure construction will start simultaneously
- The main and ventilation shafts will be deepened to their final depths of 2,340 metres and development to access all reserves will be completed
- The metallurgical plant will be constructed in time to process ore from underground mining
The Evander project consists of two adjacent properties, the untouched Twistdraai and the No. 6 Shaft areas. Based on a cut-off grade of 500cmg/t the combined properties have a total mineral resource of 29.37Mt containing 7.59Moz or 236,05kg of gold. Of this, 19.86Mt containing 5.41Moz of gold fall into the measured and indicated resource category.
![Taung gold [photo]](/images/taunggold/taunggold-gsa-evander01a.jpg)
Mine planning has taken into account that shaft infrastructure will be refurbished and where necessary, replaced. Twistdraai has never been developed and has no surface or underground equipment. In the preliminary stages, access to its underground ore will be from the No 6 Shaft area.
Over the mine's 20-year life, annual mill throughput will average 1.46Mt during peak production years at an average gold recovery grade of 6.5g/t, producing approximately 9,650kg of gold annually.